When I was in college the figure was more like 10%. I wonder if the question was the same back then.

Before you get too hopeful, consider how long the national speed limit lasted and how long low state-set speed limits have continued despite overwhelming public opposition. People seem happy with a system where they risk jail every day but don't actually go to jail.

I prefer a bunch of stoners next door having a party to a bunch of drunks. The stoners tend to be a whole lot less violent and usually quieter. The drunks inevitably start some shiat.

Both booze and pot have medicinal qualities, though pot doesn't leave the user wrecked with a hangover if he consumes too much. Pot has been proven to work wonders for the miseries experienced by cancer victims while booze hasn't.

I don't know if pot will interact poorly with assorted prescription medications but I know booze will.

The majority of the population seem ignorant that making pot illegal was a political decision, pushed by a highly paid lobbyist to protect the interests of mainly one rich guy. He didn't want the many uses of non-narcotic pot (hemp) cutting into his considerable profits.

Booze was made illegal through a misguided movement, based on one woman, who had faced abuse from an alcoholic father or husband and knew other women who shared her fate. This was also during a time before there were laws protecting wives and children. However, prohibition ended and booze became legal again. Along with it came a mess that required the formation of M.A.D.D., the drunk driving laws and blood alcohol tests. Prior to that, AA formed and spread through all of the 50 states to give drunks a way to try and sober up.

Booze remains legal for several reasons, foremost is the chemical reaction in the brain, where it gives the drinker, initially, a very pleasant 'high', a feeling of relaxation and suppresses inhibitions. Essentially, it makes you feel darn good in a way no other drug can.

However, go past a certain level and the stuff gets nasty. It's caused more deaths and injuries than tobacco has. Tobacco has secondary smoke, booze has innocent victims. (Plow into a car while drunk and cripple the occupants for life. Throw the car up on a sidewalk and wipe out pedestrians minding their own, sober business.)

However, booze is legal. People go insane promoting it. Laws are forever being pushed concerning the levels of alcohol in legal drinks. Booze can turn a quiet, nice guy into a raving maniac, though I've never heard of unadulterated pot doing that. I have no doubt that 99% of you drinkers have experienced some form of activity while drunk that you regret and at least 60% will have some they can't recall, ranging from merely mildly embarrassing to possibly criminal.

The pot users I know have maybe a 20% ratio and probably 10% experienced a blackout where they might have done something criminal. Of that 10%, the majority will have consumed other drugs with the pot or smoked adulterated weed, especially joints with PCP added.

The hangover from booze can seem nearly lethal. This increases with your age. The long term effects of heavy drinking range from organ failure, to cancer, to pneumonia, brain damage, heart damage and, in some cases, nerve damage.

The long term effects of pot can be lung cancer, COPD and brain damage. That depends on the amount used and how it's taken in.

A pot 'hangover' is nowhere as unpleasant as a booze related hangover and does not put the same serious strain on the body.

Yet, booze is a booming, heavily advertised, multi-billion dollar a year business. A LEGAL business. There are now AA chapters in nearly EVERY city across the US and it's widely spread overseas.

Now, I would not want to be treated by a doctor who is tipsy from booze or stoned on pot.

However, booze tends to be more responsible for criminal activities than pot. Ask any cop who has street patrol on Friday and Saturday nights. Ask any boss about the loss in company productivity on Monday mornings from hangovers.

Ask any club bouncer about the effects of booze on his clients.

The figures are unclear as of yet, but there seems to be a dramatic increase in sexual offenses occurring due to booze than due to pot.

I neither drink nor use pot, but I can see the differences and know that if people can get their hands on anything which will make them feel good for a time, legal or not, they will do so.

I just think it's stupid that one substance which is much safer than the other, is illegal due to one man's selfishness while the other, tremendously more harmful, is sold legally by the truck load.

Take out the criminal element, regulate the stuff like tobacco and booze, tax it, benefit off the many commercial uses of the waste product (hemp), and you have a profit making, less overly harmful competition to booze.

I don't care about making it legal. I just wish I could get for my pain. It has less side affects then the meds that I am on. One gave me acid reflux, so now I have to take Nexium. I also have Glaucoma and it supposed to help that too. I would rather be a stoner than the drug addict that my doctors are turning me into.

My state legalized it. All I'd ask of the rest of the states is to not squander federal resources into fighting a problem that my state decided wasn't worth prosecuting/jailing people for. I'd rather people go to safe dispensaries than deal with street gangs and armed felons in dark alleys.

Weaver95:I wonder if the rise of social media and/or free and open access to information via the 'net helped changed people's views on cannabis?

More like a flood of misinformation. Everyone thinks it's a harmless drug with no side effects, when that is faaaaar from the case. But no one wants to read up on the actual side effects, particularly to people under 21 or so where it will cause permanent, irreversible damage to multiple aspects of their brain and body. Everyone is ignoring the medical facts and preaching these "b-b-b-but the cancer victims!" mantra when they don't even know that it's used to treat the side effects of cancer TREATMENTS and not cancer itself. I had 3 of these graphs with that misinformation float across my facebook this week. People are dreadfully misinformed. But, as you say, they're misinformed with more saturation because of the avenues of communication available.

ZAZ:Before you get too hopeful, consider how long the national speed limit lasted and how long low state-set speed limits have continued despite overwhelming public opposition. People seem happy with a system where they risk jail every day but don't actually go to jail.

Rik01:I prefer a bunch of stoners next door having a party to a bunch of drunks. The stoners tend to be a whole lot less violent and usually quieter. The drunks inevitably start some shiat.

Both booze and pot have medicinal qualities, though pot doesn't leave the user wrecked with a hangover if he consumes too much. Pot has been proven to work wonders for the miseries experienced by cancer victims while booze hasn't.

I don't know if pot will interact poorly with assorted prescription medications but I know booze will.

The majority of the population seem ignorant that making pot illegal was a political decision, pushed by a highly paid lobbyist to protect the interests of mainly one rich guy. He didn't want the many uses of non-narcotic pot (hemp) cutting into his considerable profits.

Booze was made illegal through a misguided movement, based on one woman, who had faced abuse from an alcoholic father or husband and knew other women who shared her fate. This was also during a time before there were laws protecting wives and children. However, prohibition ended and booze became legal again. Along with it came a mess that required the formation of M.A.D.D., the drunk driving laws and blood alcohol tests. Prior to that, AA formed and spread through all of the 50 states to give drunks a way to try and sober up.

Booze remains legal for several reasons, foremost is the chemical reaction in the brain, where it gives the drinker, initially, a very pleasant 'high', a feeling of relaxation and suppresses inhibitions. Essentially, it makes you feel darn good in a way no other drug can.

However, go past a certain level and the stuff gets nasty. It's caused more deaths and injuries than tobacco has. Tobacco has secondary smoke, booze has innocent victims. (Plow into a car while drunk and cripple the occupants for life. Throw the car up on a sidewalk and wipe out pedestrians minding their own, sober business.)

However, booze is legal. People go insane promoting it. Laws are forev ...

JPSimonetti:Weaver95: I wonder if the rise of social media and/or free and open access to information via the 'net helped changed people's views on cannabis?

More like a flood of misinformation. Everyone thinks it's a harmless drug with no side effects, when that is faaaaar from the case. But no one wants to read up on the actual side effects, particularly to people under 21 or so where it will cause permanent, irreversible damage to multiple aspects of their brain and body. Everyone is ignoring the medical facts and preaching these "b-b-b-but the cancer victims!" mantra when they don't even know that it's used to treat the side effects of cancer TREATMENTS and not cancer itself. I had 3 of these graphs with that misinformation float across my facebook this week. People are dreadfully misinformed. But, as you say, they're misinformed with more saturation because of the avenues of communication available.